Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part One

 Notes: Oh my goodness, are we almost done? I think we're almost done! Wow! This one's been a bit of a wild ride, huh? One more week to wrap it up and then...I don't know what happens next! Obviously we've got to resolve things on Trakta, but I'm still working out the details of how. I might write a shortie fic in between to cleanse my mental palate. We'll see!

Title: Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part One

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Chapter Twenty-Four, Part One

 

Photo by Geronimo Giqueaux 

 

It was easy to be quiet, in the aftermath.

There was nothing for Kieron to do. No heavy lifting, noinvestigation, no preparation. Lizzie nailed the drop with all the propulsionequipment that Catie was going to need to get back into space, and it was mostlypreassembled. The last bits were tricky enough that only Elanus could see themthrough, so that left the rest of them with a lot of time on their hands.

Bobby didn’t speak audibly, just tapped when he wanted tosay something. Elanus had already offered to outfit him with a voice system,but Bobby had declined for now. “But don’t you want to be able to talk topeople who don’t understand Morse code?” Elanus had asked, and Bobby had simplyreplied, [No thank you.] And that was that, for now at least. And Carlisle…

She didn’t speak much to anyone. She hardly made eye contactwith Kieron—which was strange, because she made plenty of eye contactwith Elanus. They were antagonistic, but in a teasing way, able to engage in analmost lighthearted fashion that was simply impossible with Kieron. He wantedto be offended, wanted to have the energy to rage and demand answers, to wonderwhat it had all been for if she was just going to ignore him now, andyet…he didn’t. He didn’t have that energy. He felt detached, almost entirelydissociated from his body. Floaty, and distant, and still.

Elanus had noted it, because of course he had. “You need bettermedical care than we can give you in the middle of nowhere,” he muttered as helaid a hand on Keiron’s forehead in an embarrassing act of checking his temperature.

“Sorry, Daddeeee,” Catie said sadly. “I did the best thaaatI could.”

“I know you did, baby, you did great.”

“You did great,” Kieron echoed, because it was true andbecause it was all he could think to say in the moment. He wished he could domore, but he just felt…empty. Hollow.

Coming here had changed nothing for him. Nothing. Hedidn’t have any deeper understanding of himself or his past actions. He hadn’tbeen gifted with any new memories of the time between when he started atCloverleaf Station and when he woke up in Elanus’s house on Gania, Regenedright out of his own mind. He had all the feelings he’d had before—more, even,shame and anger on top of the love like some sickening cauldron that bubbledinside of him, threatening to spill over and fill the emptiness with itstoxicity. All he’d done here was make himself worse.

And save his mother, but she didn’t even want to be saved,so…

Bobby tapped out something from where he sat in Kieron’s lap.[Breathe, Papa.]

Kieron tapped back, “I’m breathing.”

[Breathe better.] So Kieron made an effort, and Bobby hummedand settled in once more, and that was all Kieron spoke for the whole day, andthat was all right.

With the limited capacity he had for emotion right now, hewas rather surprised that his family was taking his silence so well. Not thatElanus and Catie couldn’t carry a conversation for days just the two of them,and they did a good job of drawing Lizzie and Xilinn and even Ryu intoeverything from technical discussions to simple chatting, but they didn’t pushhim to speak. No one did, and Kieron was all right with that. He knew it couldn’tlast, but there was something nice about not having to work to put anyone elseat ease right now.

The countdown to getting off Hadrian’s Colony changed, itseemed, on a daily basis. As soon as the chassis was in place, they had to makesure the fuel cells weren’t compromised; as soon as the fuel cells wereverified, they had to recheck the chassis; as soon as Catie was secure, theyhad to find the best break in the weather to attempt it. That was the hardestpart, and it took a week of concerted effort on both Catie and Lizzie’s partsto independently choose the same window for takeoff.

And they had five minutes to make the most of it. “—because thelayer of frozen methane shifted unexpectedly by several thousand meters,Elanus, and—”

“I believe you, baby, I believe you,” Elanus said as herapidly moved about the cabin, prepping the living space for launch as fast ashe could. There were only two chairs and there was no question who was sittingin them, but he’d already fabricated a harness that could clip to the wall andfloor for Carlisle. She sat in the makeshift seat without complaint, herexpression steady. Kieron watched Elanus buckle her in, then distractedly didthe same for himself.

“Shoulder straps.”

“Hmm?” He looked up at Elanus, who was gazing at him with anobscure blend of patience and pain on his face.

“Shoulder straps, darling. You forgot them.”

“Oh.” So he had. He started over, not objecting when Elanus double-checkedhis work before sitting down himself. Bobby extended a set of legs over Kieron’sankles and settled in down low, and then it was time to go.

The chassis that Lizzie had deployed for her sister was abulky circular thing, a bit like a belt, that integrated into Catie’s midlinestructure and fuel system. It was essentially a donut-shaped rocket capable ofgenerating immense lift, not so great for steering or fine control. Catie wasgoing to be using all her personal resources to keep them on course while usingthe rocket to power them through the storm, which…the rain seemed thick toKieron, lashing at her viewscreen and occasionally pelting it with pieces ofgrass that the wind had whipped up.

“Running eeengine check.” A series of numbers flew by on thecontrol panel, percentages that meant little to Kieron but were clearly relevantconsidering how Elanus pored over them.

“Looks good, sweetheart, how’s the telemetry?”

“Gooood, Daddeee.”

“Still solid, Elanus,” Lizzie said. “But you’ve got to go inthe next thirty-two seconds if you’re going to hit the window.”

“Copy that, baby. Catie, let’s get out of here.”

“Yes, Daddeeee.”

The rumble that accompanied her engine coming online wasgenuinely startling. Catie was usually as soft as a whisper compared to otherships, but the chassis propelled her noise level up by a thousand percent.Kieron actually had to cover his ears, the roar became so loud. He couldn’tfeel the heat of the fire she was spewing, but he knew the ground beneath themhad to be scorched. After a ten-second buildup, Catie launched into the air sohard Kieron felt like his lungs had been punctured. He was driven down into hisseat, G-forces too heavy to resist, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

It had to be worse for Elanus, but he was still looking at numbersand talking to Catie. Shouting, more like, but he had to if he was going to beheard over the noise. “You’ve got this, baby, hit the line, hit the line…we’reoff by a kilometer. West, baby, we’re off by two kilometers…shift us, baby,shift us or we’re going to hit the ice!”

“I’m tryyyying, Daddeee! The power is—” There was a ka-chunk,and a piece of ice broke apart over her viewscreen. “Ow!”

“Cut power to the right side!”

No arguments—Catie cut power, and the ship began to spinwildly, hurtling across the high sky instead of up.

“Restart in three, two—now!”

The chassis engine flared to life immediately, stillingtheir spin so fast that Kieron’s stomach could barely hold itself together.Carlisle couldn’t; he heard her retch, but there was nothing he could do tohelp. They began to ascend again, and this time…

“We’re in liiine, Daddee!”

“Good girl, you’ve got this, we’re close to breakout. Holdit steady, sweetheart, hold it steady…almost there.” Catie rumbled and roared,the force of the chassis so intense Kieron wondered that his girl was able tokeep herself together under so much force. If she ran into trouble in the upperatmosphere, there was nothing anyone would be able to do.

She’s fine. Catie knows herself, she knows what she cando. Elanus is helping her. Straining, Kieron reached his closest hand outto the control panel and laid it near one of her sensors. He couldn’t speak,but he could still communicate. I’m here too, baby, you’ve got this.

It took a moment for Kieron to realize the noise hadstopped, his ears were ringing so hard. Catie cut the extra engines, and the whinedied down to nothing as he realized her viewscreen had gone black. And there,in the distance, was another very familiar ship.

The viewscreen came to life, and they got visuals for thefirst time since reconnecting with Lizzie and her crew.

“You made it!” Xilinn exclaimed, squeezing her son so hardthat the boy tried to wriggle away even as he laughed. “Oh ancestors, oh thankyou, you’re all right.”

Ryu, beside her, was less expressive but still gave them agrin. “It’s good to be out of there, huh?”

“You have no idea,” Elanus said, beaming at the others.

Kieron blinked and stared, taking them all in, and then theview switched to exterior. Lizzie’s skin was tinted pink, and Catie began togiggle.

“Don’t make fun of me,” Lizzie chided her sister, then—“Kee.”

Kieron finally found the strength to raise his head. “Hey, Lizzie,”he murmured, feeling lighter than he had since he woke up. “It’s good to seeyou again.”